Slim volume of Boris wit is ‘ticket to Downing Street’

Tuesday 4 June 2013 13:17 BST

The Mayor of London was unable to attend the launch of The Wit and Wisdom of Boris Johnson, edited by Harry Mount, because he is in Africa on his 20th wedding anniversary.

“Boris is enjoying some Ugandan discussions, with his darling wife Marina, of course,” said sister Rachel at Daunt Books in Marylebone. A message from her big brother read: “I hope you all make some dosh from my writing because I never have.”

This from the man who dismissed the £250,000 a year he earns for his Telegraph column as “chicken feed”. And what’s more, it was announced today that he has just signed another lucrative publishing deal to write The Churchill Factor, to mark the 50th anniversary of Churchill’s death in 2015 and the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. How does Boris find the time?

Publisher Robin Baird-Smith said it was unimaginable that anyone would publish the wit and wisdom of Ed Miliband, Nick Clegg or David Cameron. “I’d like to thank Harry Mount, as a cousin of David Cameron, for giving Boris a first-class ticket to Downing Street.” And now Boris can thank Winston Churchill, too.